In the field of hand-held, portable, circular saws, the rotating circulating saw blade normally has two guards, a fixed upper guard, and a rotatable or movable lower guard which swings back when the saw blade is brought into engagement with wood or other material to be cut. In addition, the saw is normally provided with a lower guard lift handle, by which the user may rotate the lower guard out of its normal guarding position, to permit easier direct engagement of the rotating blade with the workpiece.
Hand-held rotary saws are notoriously dangerous, and the operator may easily injure himself or herself, particularly when the movable lower blade guide has been rotated out of its normal guarding position, so that the lower portion of the blade is exposed.
A principal object of the present invention is to prevent, or to greatly reduce the likelihood of accidents occurring with circular saws.